January

To start of her actual birthday weekend celebration (Her birth'day' will span a total of 10 days starting with her family party last Saturday to her school party on Feb. 1st... !!!!) we headed over to the 2nd (3rd?) annual DeGeorge-fest where they hosted their own birthday party for Adrienne.
Corinne & Adrienne making sure the cake hadn't escaped but the beer was standing guard, ensuring its captivity.

Less than a milli-second after Elena took the candle out 3 fingers bee-lined into the icing.

The next morning... she got her very own Blue Footed Booby.
(Yes, that's really its name... it lives in the Galapagos Islands & was featured in one of her Wild Animal Baby books. She's obsessed. C'mon. What toddler ISN'T going to love saying Blue Footed Booby Bird incessently?!)

On to her VERY FIRST haircut. It must've been fate because her stylist's name was Victoria...
ANYWAY.... I got choked up TWICE on the drive over. ...ugh... My first baby's first haircut. But she could NOT wait.... she was just over-the-moon-so-excited! She's been asking for a while to get her hair cut. Does she want short hair??!! bangs??!! highlights??!!

No. She wanted a lollipop. Every time she comes along to Nick's haircut they give her a lollipop. A means to an end: haircut = lollipop.
As I was paying she flopped down & enjoyed her lolli. (Sidenote: Unless your less than 4' tall or under the age of 12 you look like a COMPLETE MORON trying to sit in one of these chairs. Just trust me on that one.)

And someone (Elean, Keri?) told me to take a before & after picture. I totally forgot. But here's a good Breck-girl, hair-swinging shot.

After the haircut it was on to the Allenhurst train station for a ride down to Jenk's Aquarium where the whole family joined up.

She's getting brazen in her old age. She ran upstairs & headed DIRECTLY to the touch & feel tank where she not only pet a starfish....

... but also gave the sea urchin a tickle too.

How a 3-year-old lives on the edge...

Post-bath-hair-modeling

And to wrap up her birthday weekend... a purple ear. To match her PJs, of course!
The laundry basket was on the floor in Nick's room. She hopped in. It flipped over & her head slammed into the corner of the bed frame.
(This was after she slipped on the kitchen floor & ended up with a big red scratch down her back but moments before bathtime when she bent over to take her pants off & cracked her forehead on the tub. For those of you who aren't aware, Greg's had-one-too-many nickname is Stumbles. She may be my clone but she gets this charming trait from him.)

Adrienne wanted a....
Clifford (invites)

Wiggles (napkins, plates, cups & silverware, or rather purpleware)
Dora (cake)

Mickey (balloons)

princess (crown & tshirt - yes, she digs Princess Leia)

pink (crown & tshirt)

blue (tshirt - *phew* I had ordered the tshirt in the morning & she suddenly threw blue out at me as I was putting her to bed - talk about luck...)

themed birthday party.

While I managed to accomodate ALL of the above wishes into a single event (because I'm just SO fabulous) Papou tumped BOTH of us by surprising her with larger than life posters!

The crown didn't last long & this is the only shot I got of her donning it.
As the party got underway she suddenly started refusing to look at the camera. I can't imagine why. She only has 5+ cameras going off in her face at all times...
Aunt Keri saved the day with a surprise tickle attack. And now feast your eyes on the matching mother-daughter outfits. Yes, that's right. MATCHING MOTHER-DAUGHTER OUTFITS. I have officially crossed the line.
(Sidenote to Aunt Keri: Princess Leia is NOT holding a gun. It's a blaster. Get your Star Wars weaponry straight.)
Really... can you EVER get tired of her busting out modeling moves?!? While she will strike a pose for anyone who asks she does save the premier moves for her teacher, mentor & at this particular moment, photographer, Aunt Keri. The sashay, the hands on the hips, the pucker, all in FULL swing...

I'mmmm coming up so you better get this party started
(wearing pink, singing Pink....)

Must... get... that LAST CANDLE!!!

Reading Minds 101:

Peter: Oh MAN!! C'MON! Who dropped the silent-but-deadly...???
Nick... Oooo-oops! I cut the cheese on Uncle Peter's lap. heehee!

Nick tooted on my daaa-ddy.
Ahhhh hahahahaha!

We wanted to play Hot Potato but didn't have any potatos. So we used Adrienne.

I've TRIED to explain to Nick that we're a STAR WARS family. But here he goes again.... trying to do a Vulcan mind meld with my mom.... *sigh* WHEN will these kids LEARN!??!
Our little beauty.... turning the big 3!

Wrapping up the day with a hot pink mini-mani.

Nick's got a blue ball.

Random craziness. Also a glimpse of what life is like 99% of the time.
(sorry the video is sideways for a bit...)



How we wake up Adrienne every morning. It's usually followed by a half-asleep wrestling match over him touching Itty Baby, her books, her... but it starts off sweet enough.

Wow. This was an idea that just simply backfired. The night of the Jets-Chargers game I gave them each 1/2 a flying saucer - they were being SO good. The cookie turned into some sort of freakish black cement that got EV-ER-Y-WHERE.

In my search for a rogue saucer from Adrienne's tea set I pulled all the cushions off the couch. I TOTALLY forgot we used to do this all the time on Almond Drive!
(and yes, I found the saucer)

Nick does nonnie (nap), we do crafts (in Adriennese, crabs). Click on the picture to get a REAL good view of where the paint is. Or rather, isn't.

Adrienne does nonnie, Nick eats. Wait, Nick eats all the time. Well, here's his version of painting. Click on the picture to get a REAL good view of where the sauce is. Or rather, isn't.

Nick has been talking up a storm. All of a sudden over the past week or two he's become incredibly verbal - and actually making sense!! This is my newest favorite, 'I don't know' which sounds more like "ahhh no no!" but he says it with such fervor. It's BARELY audible over the racket and there IS a missing car to which I'm referring (lest you think he doesn't know what he's talking about since he's holding a truck...)

We only caught Adrienne sleeping like this once or twice... Nick does it all the time & it's just too freakin' cute. And by now I've taken about 4 pictures of him & woken him up, as you can see by the peak.
The 'real' Lola may be 40 miles away but know that she (& you guys!) are loved & missed!

Adrienne is SUCH a good teacher!!


No question, one of their FAVORITE Christmas gifts is (soon to be 'was' - I don't know how much more of this it can withstand) Adrienne's princess tent. I have never seen a toy take so much abuse. They wrestle through it, on it, under it, with it....

And there you have it.



Ahh-choo & Nick rockin' fauxhawk.

Being the one & only boy of the 7 cousins, Nick was born into a life sentence imprisonment of all that is Barbie, princess & pink.

Papou caught one of Adrienne & Yiayia's baking sessions.

Today it was brownies, in case you couldn't tell.

Check out the princess apron. It says Adrienne too. The way I figure it.... between Yiayia, Papou & Greg they'll have Adrienne roasting pork tenderlions, blanching asparagus & whipping meringue by the time she's 6. Which means I'll NEVER have to step foot in a kitchen again!

New Years Sunday back on Almond Drive with our neighbors for an afternoon of food, football & a WHOLE new world of toys to dismantle. Poor little Mya got a little bug which led to pneumonia shortly after we were there. As in 4 days after we were there. I haven't been riddled with guilt as the mom of the germy kids that started it all... ugh.

But, while all were healthy & having fun that afternoon, Ryan & his trusty SLR (S-O J-E-A-L-O-U-S!!) captured some great shots of the kids...

My daddy's chili is the BEST!

(OK, WE had Ryan's delish chili... Mya had sweet potatos. Or carrots. Can't quite decipher that particular shade of orange...)

I had to split the video in half to get the whole thing poste. It is HYSTERICAL. Nick enjoys the Ryan-ride for a while... but when he's done he had to figure out how to skirt around him.

Her first shoving-of-the-inanimate-object-up-her-nose.

Adrienne & I got yelled at by Greg. No, I suppose it isn't funny.
(giggle)

One of those glipse-into-the-future pictures of what he'll look like all-grown-up...

Not even a month into wearing panties & she got crabs.

New Years Day... it was a gathering of the Billowseses.
John had Nick in HYSTERICS over ferocious chip eating.

Then he got a lesson in a toddler's innate ability to unknowingly, and almost simultaneously, put a highly concentrated amount of pressure on the kidneys, bladder & family jewels.

Thankfully their aunts & uncles don't mind being human jungle gyms. This was the 3rd or 4th 'train ride' at which point Adrienne decided to be dead weight & derailed the train.

"Get in mah BELLY!"

Nick started doing the wave, along with a chant of "PAAAA-POOOOOOU".

Sorry Glenn. I stole a page from your how-to-amuse-a-baby book. It SOOO works! The ahh-choo echo you hear is Nick who is sitting on my hip & right next to the camera mic.

Baby New Year Tori....

..and Baby New Year Olivia!
Greg, being an ol' pro at baby carrying, did a tandem neice hug.
We started off the New Year right... with chocolate frosted donuts!
(from Mima, no less! maybe 2010 IS the end of the world..)